*O's AN: This story does in no way portray my feelings or views. It is written out of fun and should be read as such.
*O's disclaimer: Lest I forget, all general disclaimers apply. I do not own the rights to the GI Joe characters, and I'm sure that the rightful owners are glad of that!
*Special thanks to Wolf for a few questions that he answered for me and to SapphireMind for shooting a few ideas my way, which I seemed to have manipulated into this off-the-wall story. ;)
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Title: Surprise
Author: Scarlett Storm O
Rating: R – language (to be safe)
Summary: What happens when two brothers are in love/infatuated with the same woman?
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The newest recruit of GI Joe was keeping stride with First Sergeant Conrad Hauser. As Duke made his way towards the mess hall, he reminded the new Joe to keep mum regarding the fact that the two were related. Falcon rolled his eyes and nodded his head. The two half-brothers hadn't seen eye-to-eye for a number of years, but the fact that Falcon joined the Army and became a member of the Green Berets did seem to bond the brothers with a common goal – to fight for freedom.
Duke didn't want to intentionally keep the fact that Falcon was his brother a secret from the team, but a discussion between Hawk and himself had concluded that the connection between Duke and Falcon not be made public...for all of their sakes. Falcon had a tendency to cause trouble and chaos wherever he went. He was a fine soldier on the battlefield, but he was known to shirk his other military duties. Because of Hawk's order, Duke had not even told Scarlett, his partner and girlfriend, that the new Joe was his brother.
As the two brothers entered the mess hall, Duke couldn't help but smile as his eyes lit up just to see Scarlett in the same room. She was across the room at a table with the other two female Joes, Lady Jaye and Cover Girl. Unbeknownst to Duke, Falcon's eyes also started to shine brightly. Not many women were on the team, and until now, Falcon hadn't met any of the three. All of a sudden, all three beauties were in the same room with him, but the real stand out was the woman with long, red hair. She looked familiar to him, and as she swept her hair back from her face, Falcon caught a glimpse of her. It was her!
"Hey Duke," Falcon poked his brother, "Remember all of my 'horror' stories from boot camp, and the wickedly, beautiful vixen that was our martial arts trainer?"
Duke searched his memory bank for the forbidden stories that his brother had told him. "The redhead who tossed you around by day...and night, if I remember correctly?" Duke replied with a chuckle.
"Yeah. Maybe there is a God," Falcon exclaimed through eager eyes as he continued to stare at Scarlett.
"What in the world are you talking about? And what made you think of her?" Duke inquired.
"Oh man, you are not going to believe this, but she's here. Right over there," he responded with a nod in the girls' direction.
Duke laughed and shook his head. "Sorry to inform you bro, but I don't think she's here. Of the three women on the team, there are only two redheads, and the one isn't a natural redhead. She was blond when she joined the team but changed her hair color for some unknown reason. And Scarlett..."
"That's her," Falcon interrupted enthusiastically, "Sergeant Scarlett O'Hara. The strongest woman alive, and I do mean 'strong' in more than one way." Falcon's eyes were wide, and he looked like he could start drooling at any minute.
Duke was stunned at his brother's revelation. No, this wasn't possible. His Scarlett was not his brother's vixen from a few years ago. It couldn't be. Or could it? Scarlett had gone from Army post to Army post training soldiers, and the timing would fit right before GI Joe was formed.
Duke's initial thoughts went from shock to anger. The woman that he loved, and who he thought loved him, had been the woman in his brother's wild and sex-vivid stories.
Cover Girl was the first to see Duke and the stranger in the room and waved them over to the table. As Duke approached the ladies, it took all of his self-control not to do something stupid.
"Who's your friend, Duke?" Lady Jaye asked as she eyed the fellow beside the first sergeant. He had a striking resemblance to Flint.
Duke cleared his throat and said, "Ladies, this is Lt. Vincent Falcone, our newest teammate. Falcon, this is Cover Girl, Lady Jaye, and Scarlett." He had a hard time uttering Scarlett's name and his eyes looked away from hers.
The women welcomed Falcon, and Scarlett muttered an inquiry of his past army posts since his name sounded familiar.
Without thinking, Duke spat, "I'm sure it does sound familiar," and he turned on his heel and stalked out of the mess hall.
As Scarlett tried to ask the receding man what he meant, she looked shocked and dumbfounded, as did the other two women. Scarlett glanced over at Falcon and noticed his sheepish grin. Again, as she was about to speak, Falcon turned and collided directly into General Hawk. Hawk steadied the new Joe and asked him to come with him to his office for some more paperwork.
"What was that all about?" Lady Jaye and Cover Girl simultaneously asked a visibly upset Scarlett.
"I...I have no idea, but I better go find out," she said as she took off after Duke.
In the hallway, she called out after him, but he continued to walk away from her and didn't even acknowledge her calls. She finally caught up to him outside of the briefing room.
"Duke, what was that all about?" She asked as she reached for his arm.
Duke caught her outreached arm in his grip and forcefully pulled her into the briefing room and slammed the door shut. He released her arm and glanced at her shocked face, but the image was too much and his anger too hot that he turned away from her.
"Conrad, what is wrong?" She asked again, knowing that he was pissed at something, and by the way he was acting towards her, she had done something to trigger it.
In a weak but accusing tone of voice, he said, "How could you? Why didn't you ever tell me? You played the innocent maiden so well and told me that Snake Eyes was the only man before me. How could you lie to me? And...and with my brother for God's sake?"
Scarlett was astonished at his accusations and immediately went on the defensive. "What the hell are you talking about?" She asked stupefied.
"Falcon is my brother. You, him, training class about three years ago." He turned around to glare at her.
She still looked perturbed and confused, but then the realization finally sank in. "Fort Bragg, three years ago, that's where I know that name. The wiseass kid who constantly gave me trouble," she stated still mystified at Duke's reaction. "Conrad, I trained him and kicked his ass several times, but what are you talking about? Hell, I trained most of the guys on the team before GI Joe ever existed."
Duke slammed his fist onto the table, causing Scarlett to jump. "Goddamn it, Shana! Level with me. I deserve the truth," he yelled, still glaring at her.
Scarlett replayed the words spoken in this brief but highly emotional meeting. Suddenly, she read between the lines and the accusation sank in. "Whoa, wait a minute. You don't think...what kind of stories did he tell you?" She asked with disgust.
Duke, once again, turned his back on her and stared out the window. "Are you trying to tell me that my brother is a liar?" He scowled.
"You're damn right he is. Well, at this tall tale anyway. Especially if he told you what I hope to God he didn't tell you. He was pulling the wool over your eyes," she retorted in a mixture of anger and hurt. "Conrad, I never..."
"Shut up!" Duke demanded as he raised his arm in the air as a motion for silence. He never turned around to look at her but could feel her eyes burning through him. Had he jumped to conclusions?
The room was absolutely silent as neither one of them spoke. Scarlett was furious that Duke had even believed and thought that his brother's lies were real.
In a voice laced with frustration, she said, "Damn it, Conrad, please turn around and look at me. I didn't have any physical relations with your brother. My God, what do you think I am?" She hadn't meant to let those last words slip out of her mouth.
Silence
"Please, can't we talk about this and set the record straight," she begged him again.
Duke refused to turn around. He was so angry and hurt that he was afraid that if he turned around he would say or do something unexpected that he would seriously regret later.
Not wanting to press the issue any further, she conceded. A barely audible whisper squeaked out of her mouth, "Fine. Maybe we both need to calm down first." She backed away from him towards the door. Her mind was reeling from the explosion that just happened. She had to go hunt down and seriously hurt one Lt. Falcon, who had just single-handedly blew her love life straight to hell.
As Scarlett was retreating towards the door, she wiped the tears from her eyes that were threatening to flow down her cheeks. Duke could see her reflection in the glass but refused to turn around and look at her. He knew that she would never resort to tears unless they were genuine, but he could not get the painted mental images of her and Vincent and all the stories that Vincent told him about the two of them out of his mind. The nights of wild sex and lovemaking were vivid in the pictures that he had dreamt up while he read his brother's letters or listened to his stories. No, the stories were true or were they?
As Scarlett exited the briefing room, she headed towards her office. She needed to compose herself and regain her self-control. She shut her door and leaned against it. The last fifteen minutes had been the most hurtful and angst-ridden moments of her life. She collapsed into her chair, rubbing her temples as a horrendous headache was making itself prominent.
She stared at a framed picture perched on her desk of Duke and her. It was a candid photo taken a few months ago at a barbeque. Tears started to take over her emotions again as she stared at that photo. In a fit of hurt and rage, she reached out, grabbed the first object on her desk, and hurtled it across the room. It shattered against the corner of her office and landed in pile of rubble.
She buried her head into her hands and sobbed. What was going on? How could this be happening?
A knock at her door, followed by its unauthorized opening, brought Scarlett's head up from her hands with a jerk.
"What the hell is going on in here, O'Hara?" A very angry Beach Head demanded as he scanned her room, saw the remnants of her phone lying in ruins at the base of the wall, and then noticed her tear-stained face.
"Bite me, Wayne!" She retorted.
A somewhat startled Beach Head entered the office and in a gruff voice asked, "What's going on with you, Red?"
"Nothing that you would understand. Just leave me alone," she snapped back at him. The resident hard-ass would never understand what was going on. He made it quite obvious that he didn't approve of her and Duke's nor Lady Jaye and Flint's relationships.
"Suit yourself," he growled as he muttered some other inaudible words under his breath as he left the office, casting an eye over at the destroyed phone and shaking his head.
Even though Beach Head was an unwelcome visitor, he did manage to redirect her thoughts from the self-pity that wanted to take over her life to the task at hand: finding and beating the shit out of Falcon.
Scarlett left her office like a lioness on the prowl. She was ready to confront Falcon; she was ready for his next visit to be the infirmary and NOT as a visitor but as a guest. She was sure that Doc and Lifeline would welcome the distraction of setting some broken bones and stitching some open wounds.
Her search for Falcon didn't take her near as long as she thought. The poor unsuspecting lieutenant didn't have a clue that one pissed off redhead was bearing down on him.
Falcon turned around just in time to catch a solid right hook in the jaw. She stood over him, furious and hell bent on pummeling him, but resisted the urge.
"What in the hell were you thinking?" She growled at him. "What kind of stories did you tell Conrad?"
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**Here ends this part of the story. I have devised two endings. Alternate ending #1 is titled "Bad Girl", and Alternate ending #2 is titled "Good Girl". Please read and enjoy both versions, and then in your review let me know which one you liked best. *snicker, snicker* And please remember that this was written for fun and not to be taken serious in any way, shape, or form.